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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Chang'e program _ Chang'e 1 impact site

Posted by: Phil Stooke Nov 27 2016, 06:33 PM

I have been searching for this impact site for a while with no success until today. This is the impact location of Chang'e 1 in Mare Fecunditatis.

I was working on a 'false positive' when it occurred to me that the area had been imaged by Apollo. The Metric camera images are not detailed enough but the Panoramic Camera images are. Luckily they are now online at Arizona State University. A comparison of LRO images and Apollo 16 Panoramic frame 5202 showed that my initial guess was already there in 1972, but then a 'blink' style overlay of the two images showed exactly what I was looking for - a fan-shaped ejecta deposit from a south-to-north grazing impact, clearly formed between the two image dates and close to the predicted location.

Here is a low-resolution comparison (the actual discovery images, but cropped):



And here is a closer view:



(note that this raw image is flipped east-west)

The location is 1.66 deg. S, 52.27 deg. E (in Quickmap coordinates)

Phil

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